Projector Screen vs. Wall Paints? Which is best?

Thinking of setting up a home theatre or a conference room? Your first and foremost step should be to get a good quality projector. Once you are done spending a hefty amount on the projector, the next step is to find a place to display your reports, videos, slides, or business presentations.

Choosing the right place and position for displaying the image holds a great impact on the quality of the image along with colors and visuals. There are plenty of options to opt from and can be a little intimidating but don’t stress, it is easier than you think.

Here is the burning question you might have, and what actually becomes a fairly hard decision to make. Should you go or a projector screen or is a simple painted wall well enough to get the job done?

A layman’s view might be of the kind that hey, a projector screen is nothing but a white sheet with a smooth surface and maybe better visuals. But, a shiny wall with white paint is going to work just the same. Does it actually make a difference?

To clear this tiny cloud of thoughts of yours, we are going to compare and contrast each factor to let you know who wins the projector screen vs the painted wall dilemma, and rest assured, it is going to detail so nothing is left out!

Our recommendations are properly judged and acknowledged by hundreds in the industry and our word matters. Our advice to you? Go for the former, the ‘projector screen’. Why? Let us have a good look at this question, down below.

Projector screen is better, and why?

The texture – No matter how smooth you think the wall is, if you move closer to it or move your hand on it you will surely feel some unevenness, bumps, and crevices. You might think what difference these tiny little imperfections make in displaying?

Well, for a low-quality projector this might not make a difference but if you are using a high-resolution projector then each tiny bump will result in a shadow adding up to reduce the brightness and sharpness of the final image displayed. Depth of display is something which matters here, and it is important to get the right thing.

If you have spent a handful amount on a quality projector, you surely don’t want the image quality to suffer by the hands of a wall.

While on the other hand, projector screens that are solely designed to serve this purpose are curated in such a way that they reduce the visual noise on the surface and hence an array of smoother and crispier images are displayed with no foreshowing shadows or bumps.

The color – Let us imagine you somehow managed to get the wall smooth. Well, it still is not enough.

A projector’s light needs to be directed and reflected properly in order to create a sound vision and a wall is not capable to do so. A degraded quality level will always be apparent when you opt for this choice.

But what miraculous extra features do you expect from a simple white paint? It is just painted. What it does is smooth the wall so it looks a little better, but, that is it. It is all on the wall then.

A simple wall is not designed to serve this purpose and when compared to the projector screen a wall pays little to no heed in reflecting the light as it is supposed to be.

Where a projector screen holds the properties of canceling out abstract and natural light, wall paint in no case can beat the projector screen. It will display what you want it to display without natural modifications or enhancement of any sort.

Here are our recommendations for some of the best projector screens:

Seymour Screen Excellence Ambient-Visionaire Black 1.2

Silver Ticket STR-169110

Stewart Filmscreen Phantom HALR

But if you are determined to make wall paintwork even after reading above, we don’t judge you! Here are a few things to consider when opting for the latter “wall paint” option.

Wall paints as a second option

As already mentioned the walls aren’t as smooth as they seem when it comes to displaying a projector screen.

So, the foremost thing to achieve is a wall as smooth as possible. This is not easy as it sounds, it might take you long and a couple of coats of paint and rubbing to get a decent amount of smoothness on the wall.

The second thing to do is obviously paint. Here are two options for the paint, you can whether opting to use simple white acrylic paint or a projector screen paint.

The most suggested one would be a best projector screen paint for obvious reasons as the simple white paint doesn’t come with reflective properties and it is better to go for the option that is actually designed to serve the purpose.

Here are few best projector screen paint recommendations:

Ultra HD Premium Screen Paint

Paint On Screen Projector Screen Paint

Digital Image Screen Paint

Well, you might jump to the conclusion that it is better to paint a wall with projector screen wall paint than actually buying a projector screen. We’ll say again, too soon!

Let’s do a little comparison between projector screen paint vs the screen itself for the fair judgment.

Projector screen paint vs the screen

Though the screen paint is better reflector than the simple white painted wall, it doesn’t necessarily reflect the light as efficiently as the screen. In most of the cases, a little glare is observable on a screen painted wall.

Talking about the price point of view, projector screen paints aren’t cheap! They cost a few hundreds of bucks to get a sufficient result that is required. Along with the price of the paint itself, the wall needs a couple of coats of base and primers first to get ready to be painted by the projector screen paint hence adding more into the final cost and efforts as well.

This deep comparison must have made your decision easier if you are confused in projector ‘paint vs screen’ battle.

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